In 1881, when Pauline Agassiz Shaw founded the North Bennet Street School to train primarily European Jewish and Italian immigrants in skilled trades, Boston’s North End was home to thousands of recent immigrants who crowded into the neighborhood’s tenement houses in search of a better life.
1800s Boston philanthropist
Generous patron of up-and-coming artists and musicians—a tradition carried on by the Gardner Museum today
As one of Boston’s leading women philanthropists of the day
American activist who worked tirelessly for women’s rights, especially suffrage and the abolition of slavery.
Annie Adams Fields hosted an influential literary salon in Boston and supported many women writers and engaged in significant charitable work.
Although the home of Annie Adams Fields (1834-1915) and her husband, publisher James T. Fields, at the end of Charles Street, does not survive, it was the site of their important literary salon. After his death in 1881, Annie Fields continued to support the work of many women writers, including Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909) who spent winters with her, poet Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920) and Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-96). Fields was also active in charitable works. She spent many hours at the Charity House on Chardon Street and co-founded the Cooperative Society of Visitors, a case review agency that made recommendations to the central administration of Boston’s relief organizations for aid disbursement. The Society was absorbed into the Associated Charities of Boston. Fields’ book How to Help the Poor (1884) served as an unofficial guide to the programs and policies of Associated Charities.
1700s Scottish-American businesswoman and philanthropist
Ukrainian-American singer, comedian, actress, and radio star
Creator of the MacDowell Colony, an institution that has left its mark on the cultural landscape of this country and continues to nurture and support creative artists today.
Polish-Australian activist